


The Fires are Kindled

by stifledlaughter



Series: ReSWAN ficlets [2]
Category: Johnny the Homicidal Maniac
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, M/M, ReSWAN, Walpurgisnacht - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-11
Updated: 2017-03-11
Packaged: 2018-10-02 17:42:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10223648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stifledlaughter/pseuds/stifledlaughter
Summary: [Fic of "Song Without A Name: Reprise from LadyYateXel"]On the night of Walpurgisnacht, "Witch's Night", Johnny gains the ability of fire conjuration thanks to an errant witch's heartbreak. But can Johnny- and everything else inside him - control these new powers?





	

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Song Without a Name (Reprise)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2057940) by [LadyYateXel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyYateXel/pseuds/LadyYateXel). 



> So this is a fanfic of a fanfic (see the "inspired by"). The song that inspired and is quoted in this fic is here, "Walpurgisnacht" by Faun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U10ftE4XQvo
> 
> The italicized quotes about Walpurgisnacht taken from Wikipedia.

"We've been in these woods for an hour, Nny!" yelled Tenna from her perch atop of an enormous collapsed oak tree. "It's not here!"

"They said it was right around here!" snapped Nny, dashing and leaping from fallen logs and piles of leaves like a deranged lemur. His eyes were wide and ecstatic. "I'll find it."

 

Devi gave Edgar the side-eye from their position watching from . "You know, feel free to use your boyfriend powers at any time to stop him." 

 

Edgar looked alarmed. "I don't have any boyfriend powers." 

 

"Tell him right now to stop and talk to us," said Devi firmly.

 

"I...." Edgar stammered, and then, just to prove Devi wrong, he said "Hey! Nny! Stop for a minute!" 

 

Nny whipped around. "You have five seconds."

 

Devi laughed incredulously. "Holy shit it worked." 

 

Edgar patiently spread his hands out in front of him, saying softly, "I really don't think we're going to find this. Let's head back to my house and hang out?" 

 

Nny shook his head. "No! Those witches said we only have the 24 hours of Walpurgisnacht to get the powers from the crystals they buried!"

 

"You are trusting teenage witches to give you magical powers?" asked Devi dubiously.

 

"Hey now," said Tenna, who was still hanging out on the giant oak tree. "Teenage witches probably get the most done of anyone, honestly." 

 

"If you give me-" started Nny but then was interrupted by a shout from Jimmy in the distance.  "I FOUND THEM! OH MY GOD!" he shrieked and Nny was off, sprinting over the undergrowth. Edgar's heart slammed out of his chest as he watched Nny's boots slip off of slick tree trunks but he never truly fell. Sometimes it felt like a small piece of himself was out there running around in the world, and that small piece had absolutely no self-preservation. 

 

And to think, this all had started because he and Jimmy had crashed a German club party at the school.

 

They had chilled in the back during the Walpurgisnacht festival the German club had put on after school. Snacking on the pretzels and sausages, they watched the educational film play out on the projector as people chatted amongst themselves or kissed each other in dark corners as the absolutely clueless teacher clicked away on the computer.

 

_"Walpurgisnacht.. The eve of May Day, traditionally celebrated with dancing, came to be known as Walpurgisnacht, "Walpurga's night". The name of the holiday is Walpurgisnacht or Hexennacht "Witches' Night" in German. Walpurgisnacht Night, in German folklore, the night of 30 April (May Day's eve), when witches meet on the Brocken mountain and hold revels with the Devil..."_

 

Jimmy stared at the screen, his eyes huge as the screen showed witches burning giant pyres on the mountain and chanting. "Oh man. That's so cool." 

 

Edgar was focusing on two girls that were in the corner, whispering. They got up to get food, and even though he was sitting directly behind the sausage plate, they continued on as if he was not there - because, to them, as he knew well, he wasn't. 

 

"Carolyn told me to get rid of the crystals before they hurt someone," said one of them, piling food on her plate. "So I buried them in that old well behind the school. You know, the one that's behind that treehouse?" 

 

"Why didn't you use them? Magic powers!" said the other one who was going to town on the brötchen rolls. "I wish I could conjure fire."

 

"She's my sister, she got me into magic, she knows what she's talking about. I shouldn't have embedded them with all my feelings anyway." She frowned and looked down at her plate. "I'm just kind of fucked up after the breakup and wanted to channel my feelings... I didn't realize putting them in my crystals amplified that power, and so then I had fire conjuration, and she saw me, and freaked out. So I had to bury them. If no one finds them by tomorrow morning, we're good. They only work on Walpurgisnacht because I'm just starting out as a witch and aren't able to channel much outside the holiday."

 

"Yeah but it was super cool when you set those pictures of your ex on fire!" said brötchen girl, who had gone on to massacre the pile of mini Ritter Sport bars. "All I can do is cleanse spirits. It's kind of bullshit." 

 

"Not bullshit, we need that. I don't want to have destructive magic. I'm glad those are buried where they are and I don't have to deal with them anymore, you know? Or her. I got my anger out and I stuck it in a well in the forest."

 

"You know, how healthy people deal with it," snorted brötchen girl. "Remind me, I have to cleanse your locker. Still reeks of her aura. She was an asshole." 

 

"I know, I know...." 

 

As the girls moved on back to their spots in the corner of the classroom, Jimmy turned to Edgar, grinning. "Dude."

 

Edgar raised an eyebrow. "No." The last thing he needed was Jimmy with fire conjuration powers. Or anyone in this gang of traumatized punks.

 

Jimmy started stuffing Ritter Sport bars in his backpack, along with a package of uncooked sausages that were next to the George Foreman grill and an unopened bag of brötchen rolls. "We gotta tell Nny about this."

 

"I don't think-" but Jimmy had sprinted out of the classroom, leaving some students and look around confused as the wind rushed by their hair.

 

Edgar wasn't terribly psychic but he didn't have to be to see this would not end well.

 

So here he was, in the woods, chasing after Nny who had met up with Jimmy, who was proudly grinning and dramatically waving his arm to show off a tiny, lumpily-built well. "I think you should have the first honors?"

 

"You're going to have the other crystal?" asked Devi dubiously, frowning. 

 

"Of course! I found out about it."

 

"I thought you and Edgar did," commented Tenna, who had quickly found another high-up place to be, this time on the edge of a medium-high pile of rocks that did not look entirely stable. 

 

"Yeah well, he doesn't want it, and I do, so there." Jimmy stuck out his tongue and turned to Nny. Did you find them. 

 

Nny dug around around and then jumped up excitedly when his hand sank more into the dirt. "Found them!"

 

"So... how does this work?"

 

"There has to be blood contact," said Jimmy. "You seal it with blood, it creates a bond between you and the object." 

 

Devi shifted uncomfortably as Nny lifted a heavy clear quartz from the well. Smeared with dirt, it only glinted in the parts wiped clear by his fingers. Nny took his other hand, bit into a finger, winced, and then dragged the finger across the quartz, laughing as the crystal began to glow and infuse his hands with a bright, warm light. 

 

"My turn!" said Jimmy eagerly, but before he could reach in, Devi stuck her hand into the well, and there was a bright glow, and she lifted up the quartz.

 

"What the fuck!" snapped Jimmy. "That was mine!" 

 

"I decided I frankly do not trust you with fire conjuration powers," she said, and began to wipe the crystal off. "Ooof. I feel weird." 

 

"Where did you get the blood so fast?" asked Edgar curiously. 

 

"You don't want to know," she replied, and Edgar shut up.

 

"Nny?" asked Jimmy, and then Edgar turned to see Nny staring at the quartz. "You feel alright?"

 

And that's when Nny lobbed the quartz in the air and blasted it with a small spark of fire from his palm.

 

"FUCK!" shrieked Devi as she threw her arm across Edgar and Jimmy and hauled them back. "We're in a goddamn forest, Nny! You know? Smokey the Bear and shit? Christ!" 

 

"It rained last night. We're fine," he said, and then turned to Edgar. "We have to try this out in the parking lot. Oh my god." 

 

"How does it feel?" asked Jimmy, still not looking at Devi. 

 

"Like... my hands are super warm, and if I just focus, I can... create fire. I just have to want it." He turned back towards the direction of the school. "To the parking lot!" With that he ran off, Jimmy following. 

 

Tenna jumped off of the pile of rocks. "Alright. Johnny, with murderers in his head, now has the ability to conjure fire. Let's discuss."

 

"Yeah, I just had this image of them burning everything down together and had to stop half of it, at least," said Devi, who looked at her hands. "They do feel weird though. I'll wait til I'm out of the forest to test it. Don't need a bear coming after me and beating my ass." 

 

Edgar looked over. In the falling twilight, he could see the bright, small sparks in the distance of Nny and Jimmy in the parking lot. He was drawn to Nny, as always, and as usual, felt a little terrified. But for some reason, Nny having these powers made him more attractive. As cliche as it sounded, he wanted to be where the light was, what Nny was making. 

 

"Let's go there before Jimmy asks Nny to ritually burn him or something," sighed Devi, and headed towards the parking lot. 

 

"You're totally into Nny like this, aren't you?" asked Tenna as they crawled over the logs in the rapidly approaching dark.

 

"Well... he seems so happy, right?" said Edgar, eyes on the dancing fire ahead. 

 

Tenna sighed as she threw a branch aside. "Yeah, you're hopeless. God I hope we don't get poison ivy from doing this." 

 

Jimmy's whooping and Nny's laughter echoed in the parking lot as Nny blasted rocks that Jimmy threw into the air. As Edgar approached, he heard Nny singing, and his heart fluttered. Like every time. 

 

_In den Abendhimmel steigen_

_Heute Nacht die Zauberweisen,_

_Wildes Volk und Liliths Art,_

_Lauernd Winde heimlich fahrt._

 

"It's German," murmured Edgar, and in the firelight, with Jimmy placing rocks on the ground for Nny to blast and leap over, he swore that he saw Nny's eyes light up and glow. The magic, the night, and the ever-present aura of otherworldliness around Nny combined to convince Edgar, for a moment, that the singer was truly a witch enchanting them with song and fire. 

_Lasst uns zu den Feuern streifen,_

_Raunend nach den Sternen greifen,_

_Gutes und auch böses Wort_

_Tragen wir heut fort und fort._

 

Enchanted as always, Edgar followed, coming closer to the fires. 

 

"Come on! Devi, try it!" shouted Jimmy, whose anger at having this magic stolen from him had dimmed in the experiments he was doing with Nny. 

 

She sighed and then gave in. "Throw a rock for me." 

 

Jimmy whipped a rock at the sky, and Devi threw her hand up and focused, jumping in surprise as fire blasted from her hand and smashed into the rock. "I wasn't even aiming!" 

 

"It aims for you, because it knows what you want. Or what you don't want." Nny, clearly a master in minutes of the fine art of gravel-blasting, seemed in a place transcending ecstasy. "Oh god, this is so good." And he sang again, more German; the aching Edgar had for him thrummed, and the words gripped him powerfully. 

_Hört die Geigen, hört die Geigen,_

_Die Feuer sind entfacht!_

_Folgt dem Reigen, folgt dem Reigen_

_In der Walpurgisnacht._

 

"Hey Edgar!" said Jimmy. "Let's both throw a rock and see if Nny can do two at once!" 

 

Edgar grabbed a rock from the parking lot and watched Jimmy, who nodded and threw his in the air, and Edgar followed suite. 

 

Nny easily blasted them out of the air, and laughed maniacally as the flaming rocks crashed to the ground. 

 

Edgar could see how this could get out of hand very, very quickly - but was loathe to stop Nny, who seemed exceedingly happy. 

 

And that was when Nny turned to him and said, "Let's go back to your house."

 

"Ew," commented Tenna. 

 

"You don't want to stay here?" asked Jimmy, looking crestfallen.

 

"Let them go be gross in private, please," said Devi, who turned away and motioned for Jimmy and Tenna to follow. "Let's see what happens when you blow up trash cans marked 'hazardous' behind the chem lab." They left, with Jimmy looking forlornly over his shoulder. 

 

"I have an idea," said Nny, his eyes bright with excitement, flexing his hands, and Edgar knew he would follow Nny's light.

 

\------

 

"Do you trust me?" asked Nny as he held onto Edgar's hand. The backyard of Edgar's house was silent, and the concrete beneath Edgar's feet was the only thing that seemed to tie him to this Earth. The moonlight lit up enough for Edgar to see the curve of Nny's grin, his eyes shining. 

 

"Yes," said Edgar, squeezing his eyes shut in anticipation of whatever would happen, and that's when Nny gripped Edgar's hand tightly and sighed out. And then began to laugh and Edgar opened his eyes -

 

As he was entirely encased a huge, rippling, wall of fire. 

 

Mentally, he was screaming. He couldn't move, he was frozen, and he couldn't open his mouth to actually scream. Nny squeezed him and hugged him close and whispered, "It's not going to hurt you. I told it not to."

 

"You can't tell fire what to do," said Edgar shakily, but he did notice it was a warm, enveloping heat, and not dangerous.

 

"I did. It listened." Nny buried his face in Edgar's neck. "This is the best. No one can bother us in here. No one will touch us or talk to us. We can avoid everything."

 

"I'm not sure that's entirely healthy-" started Edgar, but Nny shut him up with a kiss. He felt Nny shift up to kiss him more deeply, wrapping his arms around Edgar's waist. He could feel Nny's smile under the kiss, and then sudden absence as Nny pulled back to laugh. 

 

"Got you to forget about the fire for a second, didn't I?" 

 

Edgar had to smile at that. "I... yeah. Can we-"

 

Nny reached up to kiss him again, and then nuzzled down to Edgar's neck, sighing happily. "Fuck. I haven't felt this relaxed in forever." 

 

Edgar's heart was slamming in his chest. This was possibly the stupidest thing he's ever done. And he had a mental list. He was standing in a wall of fire. 

 

But he took the moment for what it was, in all its weird glory, as he did with all Nny moments, and sank into him, leaning against the hands on his waist. 

 

They stood there for a few minutes, enjoying the distorted sound of the crickets through the odd, warping, wooshing noise of the flames. 

 

And then the screaming started, someone shouting "Fire! Fire!" off in the distance, and then loud, panicked voices. 

 

"Fuck, someone saw us," hissed Edgar, "Nny-"

 

But Nny was frozen, panic in his eyes, and Edgar realized that the fire was not as comfortably warm as it had been. It was getting far too warm. Hot. Burning.

 

Firming up his grip on Nny, he moved to launch the two of them out of the fire. He flinched but the fire had barely had time to follow them before he rolled in the still-wet grass from last night. 

 

"Nny, snap out of it!" he said, and Nny looked up hazily from his position with his back in the grass. "Nny, don't use the fire, okay?" 

 

"The screaming... it woke them up, the past Johnnys," said Nny. "They... fuck, they took the fire for a second. I felt it." 

 

Edgar tried to stamp down the panic building in his chest. "Okay. Alright. Are they gone now?"

 

Nny nodded, still trembling a bit. "Yeah but... they were excited to have the fire. Too excited. Not like I was. I didn't want to hurt anyone with it, you know that, right?" His voice went up in pitch. "You know, right?"

 

"Yeah, yeah," whispered Edgar, who hugged the now slightly damp Nny closer. "I know you didn't want to hurt anyone."

 

"Oh god. I could have killed you." Nny started to grab various limbs within reach. "Fuck! Did I burn you? Oh god-"

 

"No, no, I'm fine," Edgar reassured him. Admitted, he was spooked, and slightly singed, but nothing serious. 

 

Nny hugged Edgar tightly, clearly still recovering "We have to put the fire back." 

 

Edgar nodded, his throat dry from the panic. He coughed and said, "Alright, back to the forest."

 

Nny gripped Edgar's hand and didn't let go.

 

\-------

 

They stood at the well after having found the quartz, chipped from Nny's blast, several yards away. Nny bit his finger again, and streaked his blood across the quartz. It shimmered, and Nny almost dunked it back into the well, to get it out of his hands as fast as possible.

 

"I'll bury it," said Edgar, who began to grab handfuls of loam and drop it on top. 

 

"No, I need to," said Nny. He began to snap sticks in half and stack them there, crushing the sticks down.

 

"The witches only said that it would last until the morning. And..." he trailed off, looking at the lilac sky blossoming over the dark dawn. "Looks like we're there." 

 

Satisfied with his burial, Nny stepped back and looked at his hands. "The other Johnnys, they didn't come out until I heard the screaming. I was blasting shit for a while and they didn't say anything. The only woke up when the screaming started." 

 

Edgar cautiously held out his hand. "Can I see them?"

 

Nny bit his lip. His cocky confidence that he put up around the others had vanished, and he was, as he always was in his head, afraid of what might come out. "I don't know."

 

Edgar lowered his hand. "That's okay. It really is."

 

Nny sat down on the edge of the well. "I... I even thought about going to Pepito's house, even though he's gone now. Burning it down. Maybe once it's burned we'll find the Hell beneath. I don't know." 

 

"Considering that would burn the houses around it, and they didn't do anything, I wouldn't recommend it," said Edgar gently, sitting near but not touching Nny. "Let's go back to my place and sleep. It's becoming light."

 

Nny looked up at the sky, with warm oranges and yellows clawing streaks across the clouds. The lavender night had given way to the bright, fiery dawn. 

 

"Let's sleep," said Nny, and, after a brief hesitation, took Edgar's hand, and they walked away from the magic of Walpurgisnacht. 

**Author's Note:**

> Here is the translation of the song that Johnny was singing! 
> 
> "In the night-sky tonight  
> The witches rise  
> Wild folk and Lilith's kind  
> Lurking, secretly ride the winds.
> 
> Let us wander to the fires  
> Whispering, reach for the stars  
> Both the good and the bad word  
> Take us (further) on and on tonight.
> 
> Hear the fiddles, hear the fiddles,  
> The fires are kindled!  
> Follow the round dance, follow the round dance  
> On Walpurgis Night.


End file.
